Diversity of Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) Germplasm from Tanzania

Abstract

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) is an important cereal crop cultivated in varied agro-ecological zones of Tanzania ranging from the southern highlands to coastal lowlands. Different cultivars and varieties of sorghum are needed for cultivation in such varied zones. Phenotypic properties of Tanzanian sorghums are not wellstudied. Objective of this study was to phenotype some sorghum germplasm from Tanzania using morphological markers to establish their diversity for future use in breeding programs. Ninety-eight sorghum genotypes were evaluated at Bumala and Amagoro in Western Kenya during 2009 and 2010 seasons in a randomized complete block design. The International Plant Genetic Resource Centre descriptors of 1993 were used for data collection. Accession MCSR T29 was the earliest which took only 64 days while MCSR T80 was the latest taking 86 days to attain 50% flowering compared to the overall mean of 71 days. The MCSR T71 was the best yielder (114.6 g/ panicle) and MCSR T10 was the lowest (10.3 g/panicle) compared to overall mean of 92.4g/panicle. About 60% of the sorghums had brown and only 2.2% had black grains. MCSR T90 had bold grains with 1000 seed weight of 55.2g. Leaves per plant ranged from 7 in MCSR T69 to 17 in MCSR T25. Plant height ranged from 72.8 cm in MCSR T53 to 434.6 cm in MCSR T80. This study showed that, Tanzanian sorghums are diverse therefore could be used in future breeding programs for developing multipurpose and adapted cultivars